The present invention concerns a thermoforming tool employed for wrap-around lamination of a sheet to at least one edge of a molding loosely resting on the tool's lower half. The tool comprises a sheet-stretching frame that is positioned over the molding and lowers a thermally plasticized sheet tensioned therein at its edges into a holding position below the edge of the molding, means of sealing the sheet off from the lower half of the tool, and means of suction employed in the subsequent lamination process. The means of suction consist of an evacuatable depression in the lower half of the tool and below the edge of the molding.
Thermoforming tools of this type are known. Once the motionless sheet has been statically formed to the surface of the molding, the upper half of the tool is lowered against its lower half, swaging the sheet in the vicinity of the depression. Vacuum generated in the depression wraps the sheet around the edge of the molding. The sheet is formed onto the molding and bonded to it in a single operation. In practice, however, the sheet often does not adequately conform to the contour of the molding, and undesirable wrinkles occur at critical and visible areas. Such wrinkles are detrimental to the product's appearance and distort its surface pattern. The adhesion between the molding and the lamination is also unsatisfactory at these points. The lower half of such a known thermoforming tool also includes many moving parts, which makes it expensive and complicated.